Infinity Ward wants the story campaign of Modern Warfare to resonate with gamers by creating a gritty and compelling narrative that blurs the lines of morality for not just your player but everyone in the game. That’s essentially the gist of what Infinity Ward has said in countless interviews over the past few weeks. While speaking with Kotaku at E3 2019, Infinity Ward has revealed how we’ll see changes in our characters. Single-player design director Jacob Minkoff told Kotaku:
“If you are taking an action that is over the line but understandable, your dialogue with your allies will branch. In some cases, their performances will branch, and they will call you out on it, and there will be other animated captured performances.”
“Now, the story itself is linear, but in the context of the mission, if you go up to the line but you don’t cross it, what you will end up with is characters who are saying things like, ‘Dude, what did you just do?
God damnit. I hope nobody hears about this.”
Minkoff also said:
“We want to make sure that in this story you see war from all of these varied perspectives. You may not agree with what a given character decides they want to do, and you may end up labeling them a terrorist or a villain, but you should understand why they fight.”
Whether you are totally on board for a realistic, more gritty narrative like this or feel that this is just overkill for a Call of Duty game, the full Kotaku article is definitely worth checking out. It’ll be interesting to see how this Modern Warfare campaign turns out. It could be a big hit for Infinity Ward and channel the immense success of the highly-praised CoD: Modern Warfare 2 story. Putting players in uncomfortable situations and giving them seemingly minor consequences for making horrible choices may help in that regard. However, it may also backfire completely.
All of this effort put into delivering an edgier story like this could potentially be the thing to drive players away. Gamers want to be entertained. To some, sitting through hours of a disheartening narrative filled with harsh moments doesn’t sound fun. At the end of the day, it will all come down to how Infinity Ward presents this story, how well-written it truly is, and what the game plays like. Not to mention the multiplayer, which is the franchise’s most popular mode and what drives many gamers to buy a new Call of Duty every year.
Modern Warfare will release on October 25th, 2019 for Xbox One, PS4, and PC.
Are you excited for Modern Warfare or are you passing on Call of Duty this year? Let us know in the comments below!
